There are a number of fluid transfer applications (e.g., applications in which fluid is being administered to and/or drawn from a patient) that require a medical practitioner to take a sample of the blood being drawn from the patient and/or the fluid being transferred to the patient. In such applications, the fluid transfer set may include a sample port that allows the medical practitioner to draw a sample of the blood or fluid without removing the catheter from the patient or otherwise disconnecting the components of the fluid transfer set. Additionally, the sampling port may be used to directly deliver a fluid to the patient by connection of a syringe, a secondary transfer set, and/or other fluid delivery devices known in the field.
Furthermore, in some critical care applications, the medical practitioner may be required to regularly monitor the patient's arterial blood pressure. In such applications, the fluid transfer set may include a pressure transducer that connects to a display that graphically shows a read-out of the arterial blood pressure. In some prior art fluid transfer sets, the sampling ports can negatively interfere with the blood pressure signal from the pressure transducer. Additionally, some prior art sampling ports utilize stop-cocks, which require substantial manipulation from the medical practitioner during use.